Dance mouse
The dance mouse or Japanese dance mouse is a dwarf breed of the Chinese house mouse ( Mus musculus wagneri ), which is characterized by deafness and repeated forced movements in circles ("dancing") due to malformations in the inner ear . Because of these defects, the dance mouse is now regarded as torture breeding , so that the breeding and sale of these animals is prohibited by Section 11b of the German Animal Welfare Act.
features
Dancing mice come in different colors, with white mice with black spots being the most common. They are generally somewhat smaller and physically much weaker than other house mice. Sometimes there are also changed head shapes.
The animals perform fast running movements in circles of different sizes, turning their heads inward, or turning on the spot. While some animals run almost exclusively clockwise or counter-clockwise, others move in both directions or change direction after about a dozen revolutions. The animals are also able to move in a straight line, but mostly only over distances of a few centimeters. In addition to "dancing", there are characteristic quick, jerky head movements. As with other mice, the main activity time is at night.
The animals are deaf and have an impaired sense of balance and are against vertigo insensitive. The other sensory functions are developed normally.
history
Dancing mice have been bred in Japan since at least the eighteenth century, as the animals here have been depicted in art. The Japanese name as Nankin nesumi ( Nanking mouse), however, indicates that the cultivated form originated in China . In Japan, the animals were traditionally kept in small cages with numerous obstacles such as slides and running wheels, where they were used to entertain children due to their urge to move.
From around 1890, dance mice were also imported to Europe and the United States , where they were generally kept in larger cages in order to be able to observe the conspicuous circular movements. The dancing mouse was also a popular model animal for genetics and behavioral research in the first half of the twentieth century .
Biological background
The dancing mouse phenotype is caused by a recessive mutation ("waltzer") that results in degeneration of the neuroepithelia of the inner ear . The affected gene codes for a protocadherin , a protein that plays a role in cell adhesion . If it fails , the stereocilia in the hair cells of the inner ear no longer develop normally, which leads to a loss of hearing and a sense of balance.
swell
- Robert M. Yerkes: The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal Behavior . The Macmillan company, New York 1909 (English, archive.org [PDF]).
- B. Grüneberg: The Genetics of the Mouse . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1943 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ German Animal Welfare Act as amended on May 18, 2006
- ↑ Kumar N. Alagramam, Crystal L. Murcia, Heajoon Y. Kwon, Karen S. Pawlowski, Charles G. Wright, Richard P. Woychik: The mouse Ames waltzer hearing-loss mutant is caused by mutation of Pcdh15, a novel protocadherin gene . In: Nature Genetics . tape 27 , 2001, p. 99 - 102 (English).